Finally after much experimenting I have come up with a quick and easy recipe for energy balls I like. My usual go to shop bought ones are the Naked Bars but I really wanted to make some of my own, customised to what I like. These ones have gone down a treat since I made them.

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Vegan Potato & Pea Curry

This year has seen a lot of changes for me, all for the good I might add. I have gone from being kind of healthy (I used to think so anyway) to a lot healthier in general. For many years I had actually been a vegetarian without saying it out loud, then at the beginning of the year I decide to stop dipping my toe in the water and jump in. So in January I completely went vegetarian, my hope was that I would start cooking more and increase my understand of food with the aim of going vegan, and I am happy to say just over a week ago I achieved it.

Again, like before I had been making the change throughout the year, but the crux for me was cheese, once I tasted the vegan cheese, there was no going back. Dairy free cheese is really good. My aim here is to catalogue all of the recipes I have been creating over the past year here online, now that I have fine tuned them.

The first one being the vegan potato pea curry, my hubby’s favourite, which is quite a triumph as he is a chef and I was not the best cook in the world. This actually did change for me when I didn’t have to cook meat anymore, an unexpected and happy side effect. On a side note my hubby also became vegetarian and vegan at the same time, which was a huge jump for him as he was a meat eater right up to the last day.

Vegan potato pea curry with rice ingredient:

1 medium onion, chopped

1 sweet red pepper, sliced

1 yellow pepper, sliced

bowl of frozen peas

6/7 medium potatoes for boiling

100g cashew nuts

2 tsps garam masal

2 tsps turmeric

2 tsps cumin

pinch of salt

Pepper

1 cube veg stock

garlic salts

tomato paste

1 tin organic chopped tomatoes

1 cup water

Small amount of olive oil

Rice

To Make:

I like to prep all the ingredients first before I start assembling the dish together.

Firstly peel and cut the potatoes into bite size chunks and power boil. Rinse with cold water to cool down when ready and leave aside. Don’t let the potatoes go mushy as you will want them to be bite size in the curry.

Chop the onion and slice the peppers, I like to slice one of the peppers into chunky pieces.

Mix the stock cube with warm water in a small glass until it is completely dissolved.

Measure out the garam masala, turmeric and cumin onto a plate.

Blend 1 cup of water, the cashew nuts, the salt, pepper and garlic together. I used a NutriBullet to blend everything.

Lightly fry off the onions in olive oil until they are golden in colour.

Mix in the spices.

Add the stock cube mixed in water.

Mix together and add the tomato paste to create the base for the curry.

Next add the peppers and fry off for a few minutes, coating with the curry base.

Add the tin of tomatoes and cook for a bit.

Next add the cashew sauce, mix and cook for a bit.

Finally add the potatoes and peas, gently mix through the curry and simmer for 10 mins.

One of the things I found hit and mix when I cooked it was rice, even with the rice cooker we had. That was until the hubby told me about an easy way to do it in the microwave, and pretty much since then it had been perfect each time I make it.

Place the amount of rice you want in a microwave proof dish and rinse the rice until the water pretty much runs clear.

Cover the rice with water measuring the length of your thumb nail above the rice.

Place in the microwave at 750 and cook for 9 mins.

Open and mix the water and the rice together, place back in the microwave and cook for another 9 mins.

Then the rice is ready.

Finally plate up and eat. Optional: I added a little bit of onion chutney at this stage.

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Usually I have a mixture of dried chamomile and tea bags in the house, but this year I wanted to grow and harvest some of my own.

I seeded in a small green house earlier in the year and then transplanted outside once the weather improved and the plants were hardy enough.

Today, the first crops are ready to harvest. Harvesting chamomile is quite easy, wait for some sunshine to allow the flowers to have their pedals fully extended. Then running your fingers below the base of the flower just pop the top of the flower off.

You will actually hear a little pop sound. You can either take one flower at a time or a few if you run your fingers up along the stem.

After harvesting chamomile, you will need to dry the flowers out. I placed them on some muslin cloth, on top of a wooden chopping board, covered them with more muslin and have them left them to dry on our south facing kitchen window.

Of course because chamomile is also a great flower to have in your garden for the bees and insects, I left behind some of the flowers for them.

I will be harvesting chamomile again later in the season, and also drying out the leaves as well, but for the moment my first batch is drying happily. Now I just have to patiently wait for my first homegrown pot of chamomile tea.